The Secret Commonwealth

Did You Know?

• The title 'The Secret Commonwealth' refers to things outside the realm of rational thought, such as ghosts, fairies, and superstition.
• Pullman took the title from a 17th-century book of the same name by the Scottish clergyman Robert Kirk.

Plot

Lyra Silvertongue, now a student at St Sophia's College in Oxford, continues to reside at her childhood home, Jordan College. Malcolm Polstead, who rescued her as a baby two decades earlier in the events of La Belle Sauvage, has become a university academic. Lyra has developed a strong admiration for two authors: Simon Talbot, a philosopher who argues that rationality is the only truth and that dæmons are an illusion, and the novelist Gottfried Brande, who likewise condemns everything outside pure reason. Her dæmon, Pantalaimon, strongly disagrees with both.

One night, while out exploring, Pan witnesses a murder. From the victim's wallet, they find a ticket that leads them to a rucksack containing a journal and an address book. The dead man is a botanist named Roderick Hassall. The journal belongs to his colleague, Dr. Strauss, who had been researching a commercially valuable rose whose oil is linked to Dust. Fearing the Magisterium would declare the rose industry heretical, Strauss kept his findings secret. The rose-growing estates are under attack from mysterious "men from the mountains," prompting Strauss and Hassall to travel there.

The desert of Karamakan, where the rose industry is based, is extremely hard to reach, and all visitors must leave their dæmons behind. When Strauss asks how people are reunited with their dæmons, he learns of a place called the Blue Hotel, where separated dæmons gather. The group arrives at a large, heavily guarded red building of clear importance. They are told the price of entry is "a life." Strauss is allowed inside. Hassall never sees him again and returns home alone, carrying Strauss's journal.

The new Master of Jordan College, a pharmaceutical executive, orders Lyra to vacate her rooms. Magisterium agents search them but fail to find the rucksack's contents. Lyra and Pantalaimon have a terrible argument. Pan insists that the books Lyra is reading have blinded her to life's essential, non-rational aspects, while Lyra angrily rejects any appeal to emotion. Pan disappears, leaving a note that reads, "Gone to look for your imagination." Devastated, Lyra suspects Pan might have gone to the Blue Hotel and decides to follow him. Her old friends, the gyptians, help her secure safe passage out of the country. Meanwhile, Malcolm is sent to Karamakan as an agent for the secret service organization Oakley Street.